Debates of Feb. 24th, 1995

Immigration

[Randy White, Reform, Fraser Valley West, BC]

Mr. Speaker, the minister has said to me before in this House that these are isolated cases. There have been three in my own riding. Where else do we talk about these issues if not here?

If we talk about where there is room to cut in budgets, this fellow has been ordered to pay $4,000 back to UIC after he picked up that amount of money while he was in jail. Want to look for places to cut in the budget?

This man failed to comply with the conditions laid down the last time his deportation appeal was successful. Who is going to be responsible when he comes back in? Will it be the minister or the refugee board? Or would it really be most logical and likely that the minister could now overturn this and just not let him back in at all?

[Sergio Marchi, Liberal, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration]

Mr. Speaker, I am not saying we should not debate the issues here. There is a difference between discussing the responsibilities that we have as legislators and parliamentarians and not interfering with, as those on that side of the House talk to us about, independent tribunals.

Let us talk about responsibility. Bill C-44 would permit the government of the day to forbid individuals like the hon. member member talks about from returning to Canada. We would not have to go through an inquiry process to get them out. It would enable a government to stop a refugee hearing and move it into an immigration inquiry. It would allow us as a government pending this legislation to forbid individuals based on national security from entering the refugee process.

I flip the question around. Who are being irresponsible by rejecting Bill C-44 and then beating their chests about individual cases?

Hepatitis C

[Pauline Picard, Bloc, Drummond, QC]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Health.

Last spring, the minister said she was waiting for the Red Cross recommendations before deciding if steps would be taken to contact every person who contracted hepatitis C prior to 1992, after receiving blood products. The Red Cross has already submitted its recommendations.

Since the Red Cross has already submitted its recommendations, will the Minister of Health finally tell us whether she will systematically contact individuals infected with hepatitis C before more people are contaminated?

[Diane Marleau, Liberal, Minister of Health]

Mr. Speaker, I have already described in this House the procedure for contacting those concerned, as requested by the hon. member.

As you know, we have a multilevel system in which responsibilities are divided among several partners, such as provincial governments and hospitals. There are several steps to follow and we will certainly continue to work with all those involved to ensure the best response possible.

[Pauline Picard, Bloc, Drummond, QC]

Mr. Speaker, does the minister realize that she is in the process of repeating with the hepatitis C problem the same mistakes that were made with contaminated blood and that her inability to make decisions is likely to have serious consequences for those infected and their families?

[Diane Marleau, Liberal, Minister of Health]

Mr. Speaker, this minister takes her responsibilities extremely seriously.

I have been working very hard with all of the partners involved to make sure we take all action necessary to ensure the safety of the blood system and the safety of blood products. I am working with our provincial counterparts as well as many other partners to make sure everyone takes their responsibilities very seriously, as I know they do.

I wish the hon. member from the opposing party would be more responsible herself instead of spreading misinformation among the people of Canada and scaring them.

We have very difficult decisions to take and very difficult actions have been taken. I would like those members to congratulate us on the many steps we have taken.

Parliament Hill

[Geoff Regan, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the spokesperson for the Board of Internal Economy.

As promised in last year's budget the cost of operating Parliament Hill has been reduced by millions of dollars. Can the spokesperson tell us what measures the Board of Internal Economy will take to reduce the cost of food services on Parliament Hill?

[Don Boudria, Liberal, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to announce that the Board of Internal Economy has approved a business plan for the food services branch which will lead to savings of some $1.7 million per year.

Three cafeterias will be shut down and replaced with more cost effective alternatives. Staff will be reduced and re-deployed. Prices will be increased and menus diversified.

This initiative, along with other measures of the Gagliano plan, will save some $6 million per year for the taxpayers of Canada.

Railways

[Werner Schmidt, Reform, Okanagan Centre, BC]

Mr. Speaker, next week 35,000 railway workers are legally entitled to strike. This country will hardly have time to recover from an inadequate budget, let alone the massive shutdown of vital rail services. The cabinet's economic policy committee has already approved proposed legislation for anti-scab legislation.

Will the Minister of Labour fight against this proposal? Will she refuse to take sides and will she find an effective, impartial means of resolving this dispute through such a mechanism as binding, final selection offer arbitration?

[Lucienne Robillard, Liberal, Minister of Labour]

Mr. Speaker, after the conciliation officer tabled his report, I understood from what the parties said that they were prepared to resume negotiations. I think that the hon. member from the Reform Party should realize that the best thing would be for both sides to agree to negotiate a settlement between themselves. Together, the parties are quite capable of resolving their problems. So, let us not talk about a catastrophe before it occurs.

The parties are presently in a very good position to sit together and figure out the best way of settling their differences. I urge both sides to go back to the negotiation table and find this solution and I hope that they will do so.

[Werner Schmidt, Reform, Okanagan Centre, BC]

Mr. Speaker, we all agree that the parties should find a solution. The minister's responsibility is to prevent a catastrophe. She has had time now to consider whether the government is going to take steps to prevent the shutdown. The clock is ticking.

Will the minister state unequivocally that there will not be anti-scab legislation on the table, that she will not support a proposal that will cause irreparable harm to our economy if there is a strike and that she is not going to be a participant in the lynching that will take place?

[Lucienne Robillard, Liberal, Minister of Labour]

Mr. Speaker, it is clearly too early to talk about any legislation. This is a matter for the parties involved, who are best able to settle their differences together.

Job Creation

[Francine Lalonde, Bloc, Mercier, QC]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Human Resources Development. According to the latest report from Quebec's ministry of income security, the number of welfare recipients has gone up again. There are now more than 797,000 people on welfare. Although massive layoffs are announced in several sectors elsewhere in Canada, the government is clearly content to rely on the economic recovery to create jobs.

Given the significant increase in the number of welfare recipients and the fact that the results of job creation programs are well below the figures quoted by the Prime Minister, does the government realize that it cannot just sit back and let the economy do the work and that it must put in place an active employment policy to provide the jobs so badly needed by Canadians and Quebecers?

[Lloyd Axworthy, Liberal, Minister of Human Resources Development and Minister of Western Economic Diversification]

Mr. Speaker, I would remind the hon. member that the government initiated a very active job creation program last year in its budget. As a result we have had the best job creation record of any country in the G-7, over 433,000 jobs.

The hon. member should know that because in her own constituency the unemployment rate has dropped almost 3 per cent during that one-year period.

I do not take any satisfaction in that as I still think more needs to be done. That is why we very much wish that the Bloc Quebecois, rather than constantly rising to defend the status

quo, would join us in a serious effort to reform our programs of training and employment so we an help people get back to work because that is where the jobs will be.

[Francine Lalonde, Bloc, Mercier, QC]

Mr. Speaker, it is important to know that, between 1985 and 1988, just as we were coming out of the crisis, there were over 60,000 more jobs on average than under this government, notwithstanding the increase in population. I can only conclude that the government does not care about the unemployment problem.

How can the minister explain the fact that his government is not handling the economic crisis nearly as well as the previous government did in the middle of the 1980s? Will the government finally get rid of its wait-and-see attitude, which is no longer enough?

[Lloyd Axworthy, Liberal, Minister of Human Resources Development and Minister of Western Economic Diversification]

Mr. Speaker, as we have said several times, a budget will be presented on Monday which will be a very definitive answer by the government to the broad crisis.

If the hon. member looks at the past record, one of the errors of omission of our predecessors is that they did not come to grips with economic reality. They did not take the decisions that were necessary to stabilize or to restructure the economy and put us in a position where we could compete effectively and create jobs in a global economy.

We have undertaken initiatives in trade. We are taking initiatives in social reform. We are taking initiatives in the whole area of developing small business programs. It is not simply a matter of reacting to rhetoric, but actually coming to grips with the hard decision.

Again, I would invite the hon. member to join us in that very important enterprise.

Health

[Margaret Bridgman, Reform, Surrey North, BC]

Mr. Speaker, Kingston penitentiary is in the midst of a tuberculosis outbreak. It is reported that 25 per cent of the inmates and six prison guards have tested positive for TB.

The president of the Union of Solicitor General's employees, Lynn Ray, has said that this crisis should never have happened and that Kingston officials have known for months about a possible TB outbreak.

Would the Solicitor General please explain why no action was taken earlier to prevent this situation.

[Herb Gray, Liberal, Leader of the Government in the House of Commons and Solicitor General of Canada]

Mr. Speaker, Correctional Services of Canada has an active program to deal with the situation. It is working with Health Canada and other medical authorities. Its view is that it currently has the situation under control.

[Margaret Bridgman, Reform, Surrey North, BC]

Mr. Speaker, this outbreak of tuberculosis shows how ill-equipped Canadian prison systems are in dealing with communicable diseases.

I ask the Solicitor General if he agrees with the corrections' spokesman in Saskatoon who suggested that it might be time to considering mandatory testing.

[Herb Gray, Liberal, Leader of the Government in the House of Commons and Solicitor General of Canada]

Mr. Speaker, this is always something that could be looked into. In Kingston there has been an active testing program. In fact, so far the people who have shown positive in the testing have not been found to have active TB as such. Prison officials are working closely with Health Canada officials to make sure that active TB cases do not occur.

I appreciate the interest of my hon. friend in this important subject.

Employment

[Andy Scott, Liberal, Fredericton—York—Sunbury, NB]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Human Resources Development.

A year ago the minister launched, together with the provinces, a series of strategic initiatives across Canada to test innovative ways of helping Canadians get back to work.

Given the tight fiscal environment, governments and Canadians generally will be turning more often to creative solutions and wanting to make sure that these solutions are working.

Could the minister report today on the impact of these initiatives on job creation in Canada.

[Lloyd Axworthy, Liberal, Minister of Human Resources Development and Minister of Western Economic Diversification]

Mr. Speaker, it is a question that follows in part the question raised by the hon. member for Mercier. We have now negotiated with the provinces over 15 different strategic initiatives that have provided opportunities for over 30,000 Canadians to find innovative ways to go back to work.

For example, in Prince Edward Island, 2,000 Canadians who have mental disabilities are now being integrated back into the community and into the workforce. In the member's own province of New Brunswick we have been able to supply through the New Brunswick job core opportunities for over 1,000 older workers to get back into the workforce.

I would like to quote a letter I received from a gentleman who is working with a boy's club who said: "I have waited 50 years for a job like this. I really enjoy working with kids. It is the best thing that has ever happened to me. It is a real blessing". That is the kind of innovation we want to show in getting people back to work.

Violence Against Women

[Audrey McLaughlin, NDP, Yukon, YT]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Justice.

I am sure that the Minister of Justice shares my concern about the issue of violence against women. I am not as convinced that the minister sees addressing this problem both legislatively and in program funding must be a central theme, not simply peripheral to other considerations.

While I know that the minister is going to introduce amendments to the Criminal Code on the so-called drunkenness defence, I want to ask the minister if he will recognize that it is not the drunkenness defence or the use of drugs that should be used as a defence in violence against women but that violence itself?

[Allan Rock, Liberal, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada]

Mr. Speaker, I fully agree with the hon. member that the drunkenness defence is only one aspect of the challenge facing government and Canadians; namely, to deal more effectively with the problem of violence by men against women.

May I say, in response to the question that has been asked, that this preoccupation affects virtually everything that the Department of Justice does in relation to the criminal justice system. Trying to assess and anticipate the impact on women of laws that we propose, trying to co-ordinate the effort with other ministries and other levels of government to provide services to victims of violence, trying through education and other proactive social means to eradicate the causes of such violent behaviour, trying to improve education for young men and boys, so that they may have a healthier view of themselves and the other gender so that-

Cultural Sovereignty

[Gaston Leroux, Bloc, Richmond—Wolfe, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the Canadian Conference of the Arts stated that it obtained a confidential document originated by the U.S. administration, describing a strategy that may be detrimental to the cultural sovereignty of Canada and several other countries.

Could the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Canadian Heritage tell us whether the minister has been in touch with the U.S. authorities and could she indicate the origin of this document?